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Singer Gal Costa, an icon in the Tropicalia and Brazilian popular music movements who enjoyed a nearly six-decade career, died on Wednesday. She was 77.
Her death was confirmed by a press representative, who provided no further information.
The soprano with wild curls of dark hair was best known for lending her unique voice to compositions such as Ary Barroso’s “Aquarela do Brasil” (Watercolor of Brazil), Tom Jobim’s “Dindi,” Jorge Ben Jor’s “Que Pena” (What a Shame) and Caetano Veloso’s “Baby.”
“Gal Costa was among the world’s best singers, among our principal artists to carry the name and sounds of Brazil to the whole planet,” President-elect Luiz Inácio da Silva wrote on Twitter alongside a photo of him hugging her. “Her talent, technique and courage enriched and renewed our culture, cradled and marked the lives of millions of Brazilians.”
Gal Costa foi das maiores cantoras do mundo, das nossas principais artistas a levar o nome e os sons do Brasil para todo o planeta. Seu talento, técnica e ousadia enriqueceu e renovou nossa cultura, embalou e marcou a vida de milhões de brasileiros.📸 @ricardostuckert pic.twitter.com/4jU2SBcHuq— Lula (@LulaOficial) November 9, 2022
Costa was born Maria da Graça Penna Burgos in the northeastern state of Bahia and came onto the scene alongside future legends Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Maria Bethânia.
All were already successful solo artists when they formed the band Doces Bárbaros. Their joint side project became an important counterculture reference during Brazil’s two-decade military dictatorship, inspiring a record, tour and documentary.
In 2011, Costa was awarded a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
She remained an active performer until nearly the end, having recently suspended shows to undergo a surgery on one of her nostrils. Her next concert had been scheduled for Dec. 17, in Sao Paulo.
Karol G‘s $Trip Love tour has grossed $69.9 million and sold 410,000 tickets across 32 shows in North America (through the end of October), according to numbers reported to Billboard Boxscore. With those figures, the Colombian star has now earned the highest U.S.-grossing tour by a female Latin act.
With $Trip Love, the “Provenza” singer surpasses Jennifer Lopez‘s $50 million grossing It’s My Party World Tour in 2019. Meanwhile, Shakira grossed $28.2 million in 2018 with her El Dorado World Tour. This year, Rosalía’s Motomami world tour has grossed $28.1 million through the end of October.
The AEG-produced $Trip Love stint, which kicked off Sept. 6 at Chicago’s Allstate Arena and wrapped up Oct. 29 at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena, followed Karol’s Bichota Tour in 2021 — her first-ever headlining trek in the U.S. — which grossed $13.4 million and sold 192,000 tickets across 26 shows in North America.
Compared to her last tour, this one boasted a larger production scale. There was a heart-shaped stage, jumbo screens with a heart border, and a floating turquoise Ferrari that, when she rode it to sing “El Makinon,” brought her closer to her fans. On stage, Karol was joined by eight female dancers, four male dancers, two exotic dancers and, of course, her all-girl band.
After wrapping up the tour in North America, Karol G took to social media to write: “Thank you God for the conviction you have given me. Thank you to all the people that worked with me day and night to make this dream possible and to the artists who shared the stage with me during the tour. You made the show shine even more with your presence. We enjoyed this tour like we were little kids, but worked like machines. This is for my home, Colombia.”
Karol G, who is dropping a new song on Sunday (Nov. 13), is currently working on her forthcoming album, which will follow her chart-topping, Grammy-nominated 2021 set KG0516. The album scored Karol her first-ever No. 1 album on Billboard‘s Top Latin Albums chart.
Karol G is also slated to headline the 16th annual Calibash, taking place Jan. 21-22 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. She joins a previously billed group of headliners that includes Ozuna, Myke Towers and Farruko.
After a three-year hiatus from releasing new music, Alex Anwandter has reemerged more built looking like a sex idol, and armed with an anthem for weekend reveries. “Maricoteca” is a risky wide-eyed NSFW statement, where spectators can see Anwandter fortifying his identity politics with a side of mischief — an alluring-yet-provocative queer artist with an unmatched talent for glimmering dance music. The single, however, is an excitingly pervasive dance cut that sinks into the sins of party culture and BDSM… and cautions, like the song affirms in Spanish, “Don’t look for your mother, nobody will save you here.”
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The video for “Maricoteca” was co-directed by himself and Josefina Alen and filmed in Buenos Aires. “I wrote ‘Maricoteca’ as an ode to losing yourself on the dancefloor, a place where you might find love, heartbreak, and the ‘perversion’ of society,” he explains in a statement. “‘Maricoteca’ is also the first song of a new album coming next year, which will explore dance culture and discothèques as the ultimate world where you can become who you really want to be.”
The Chilean multi-hyphenate artist broke into the spotlight at the start of the 2010s with the cult classic album Rebeldes, at a time when Chilean indie pop acts with a passion for electronic productions began to rise — the beloved Javiera Mena, Dënver, Adrianigual, and Astro. Anwandter has always displayed his insatiable knack for dancefloor music persuasions with a riveting queer perspective — look no further than his 2011 breakout single “Como puedes vivir contigo mismo,” which highlights New York ball culture à la Paris Is Burning, or to the iridescent synths and glowing production throughout his discography, including albums like Amiga (2016) and Latinoamericana (2018).
Recently, Anwandter teamed up with Argentina’s Juliana Gattas of electro-pop duo Miranda! fame as the producer for her upcoming debut solo album, due out next year. The dance electronic artist is also the beatmaker behind Mexico’s esteemed Julieta Venegas’ highly anticipated eighth studio album Tu Historia, out Friday, Nov. 11. Billboard caught up with the now Brooklyn-based provocateur to discuss his recent rendezvous.
Warning! NSFW. Press play with caution.
“Maricoteca” is your first single in three years — what did you do during that break?
The break had to do with the pandemic, obviously — but it wasn’t so much of a break because I was making this new album, and I’m going to start releasing singles; I was also producing two other albums, one for Julieta Venegas which comes out this Friday, and the debut album of Juliana Gattas of Miranda! which is coming out next year. So between these two albums, and my album, [it’s been] a lot.
Then “break” is the wrong word.
All good. The world stopped and I stopped doing shows too. For me it is very important to be with people physically. I didn’t feel like doing shows on Zoom either.
Well, thank you for having this Zoom call with me and talking about your single. It’s a dance track about wildly partying, and indulging in pleasures. What inspired it?
Part of it was moving to New York, which put me in more direct contact with a subculture in dance music that have always been interested in. I’ve made dance music before, but I found it stimulating to be here, and experiencing it as well.
You helped spearhead the Chilean indie-pop wave of the 2010s. Talk to me about that transition — from having participated in that movement in your native country to now mixing new sounds with New York influences.
It was a quite natural expansion actually. Being Chilean is not the only thing I am. I’m also Latino, and I’m part of the, quote unquote, queer community. Those identities are beginning to blur. For me it is a purpose to transcend identity politics in music. To be honest, I wanted to make a very entertaining record that was about having a good time, feeling pleasure — which is a pretty close thing to me — and in my case, in dance music. It’s a less cerebral and more corporeal record.
You bring to the forefront topics of identity that can feel profound because they are associated with a political movement. But at the same time the music is playful, and ready for the dance floor. How do you balance expressing your identity politics while making music to release?
That’s a good question. On the one hand, [it’s important for me] to make music that I find entertaining, music that really makes me dance and have a good time — and on the other hand, to be genuine, which I always tried to cultivate. Sincerity is very important in my art. And when you combine those two things, you can read an identity, but I’m not trying to sell it.
I find it a bit tiring that at this point in time identities have been commodified. This music has to do a little bit with getting away from discourses that don’t mean much anymore. It’s a little more abstract, but at the same time it’s much more entertaining, dark and mysterious.
Can you share some details about your upcoming album?
It’s an album that will explore dance music and dance culture as a place of expression and pleasure.
I heard you moved to Brooklyn — what brought you to New York?
I moved to the U.S. five years ago. I lived two years in L.A. and moved three years ago to New York. It’s very crazy here, but it’s very crazy everywhere. Life is very crazy. [Laughs.] Chile is far away, but it’s still intense. I think the world is an intense place, and you just have to get used to the idea. [New York] is very entertaining and I have met very special people. I really like being in a place where people from all over the world live. That’s very nice for me.
Julieta Venegas’ next album, which you produced, maintains her unmistakable style, but your essence and impulse is also noticeable.
The collaboration was a dream for me, in the sense that I have always admired Julieta very much. She is one of the most talented musicians we have had in Latin America. It was a dream in the sense that we had a great time. We have been friends for ten years. I feel that this took our friendship to a different artistic level.
It was a really beautiful experience. As a composer and producer, it was incredible to see someone of Julieta’s level working. When I was with her in the studio, I was thinking, “Wow, that’s why Julieta is doing amazingly well — because she’s a genius.” To see a genius working for me was very impressive. I had a great time.
The minimalist guitar on Venegas’ “La Nostalgia” is beautiful. Her love letter to Tijuana is very poetic, a reflection on her hometown. In your case, do you feel nostalgia for Chile?
I think I go there too much to feel nostalgic. I’m there all the time — I mean, not all the time, but I travel a lot to do shows. But I’m not a person who looks back, for now, maybe because I’ll feel nostalgic.
Aside from the crazy partying shown in the video for “Maricoteca,” it looks like you’ve been working out. Can you tell me a bit about your fitness routine?
Is this also going to be in GQ Magazine? I do normal types of exercise, but nothing crazy. I think the music video has that gymnasium imagery — a prison for physical standards and stuff like that. It’s a very gay world, and [the video is] about being a fan of that.
This interview was originally conducted in Spanish.
RIO DE JANEIRO — In 2020, the pandemic knocked down Brazil’s show business, causing the number of music-related events to plummet by 80% to about 15,000, from over 83,000 in 2019, according to Brazil’s office for collection and distribution of music copyrights (ECAD).
While many artists pivoted to livestreams during the shutdown, Bete Dezembro and a group of fellow promoters and artist managers seized the moment to try to remake Brazil’s concert business — betting that once artists returned to the stage, concerts would be in much higher demand. “We had to reinvent ourselves,” Dezembro, owner of Fábrica de Eventos, an events promoter focused on Brazil’s northern music market, tells Billboard.
In March of 2021, Dezembro — along with Augusto Castro, Léo Góes, Celso Almeida and Fernando Almeida — launched 4Even, Brazil’s first investment fund designed to turn music shows into a financial asset class. The gig-driven fund generates profit from buying shows from music artists and reselling them to private clients for higher prices.
The idea was risky. At the time, it was unclear when live concerts would return or even when COVID-19 vaccines would be available in Brazil. “The financial market bought into this idea when it realized that the businesspeople who understand the music sector were the ones taking the risk,” says Dezembro.
With 100 million reais ($18.8 million) of their own money, the five partners inaugurated 4Even’s portfolio by acquiring 192 show dates of Gusttavo Lima, a popular sertanejo act — which valued his shows at just under $100,000 apiece. (Sertanejo is Brazil’s version of American country music.) A year and a half later, 4Even is worth around $30.5 million, the fund managers say, with a portfolio of around 800 shows from at least nine Brazilian artists.
The diverse list includes pagode performer Sorriso Maroto, dance music DJ Vintage Culture and sertanejo duo Jorge & Mateus, 4Even’s most recent acquisition. (4Even only negotiates for shows in Brazil.)
Dezembro tells Billboard that five other Brazilian artists, who she would not name, are currently negotiating to sell shows to 4Even.
While the live sector is rebounding, ECAD says the number of music-related events in 2022 through September, at about 40,000, is still less than half of the 2019 full-year level. That hasn’t stopped the 4Even fund from inspiring other investors. In August of 2021, Opus Entretenimento, a concert promotion and artist management company, and brokerage company XP inaugurated a show-driven investment fund they say is worth around $52 million. Seu Jorge, Alexandre Pires, Bruno & Marrone and Vintage Culture are among the artists who have sold shows to the XP OPUS fund.
Nevertheless, some Brazilian music executives have reservations about the concert funds’ ability to be profitable.
“I’m afraid that some of these funds may be valuing their assets a bit above their actual market value,” says Marcelo Soares, the CEO of Som Livre, a label owned by Sony Music Entertainment. “Some of them will eventually face financial losses. But I like that investment funds are discovering the music market.”
Marcos Araújo, CEO of promoter Villa Mix, says high artist fees, which have been rising in Brazil for the biggest artists, could lead fund partners to squeeze consumers by raising ticket prices. “It’s a very difficult model,” says Araújo, who has managed Lima and other big acts like dance-music performer Alok. “The artist takes his money in advance and spends it on a jet, plane, ship, boat. His money runs out and he starts fighting with the fund. Because he wants more money.”
Araújo told Billboard in mid-2020 that he was working to create his own gig-driven concert fund. He ultimately stopped trying to land enough investment after souring on the idea as too risky. “I was afraid artists couldn’t fulfill their agreements,” he says.
Lima was the first to sell shows to 4Even, agreeing after fund partner Castro, who produces shows and manages artists from Central-Western Brazil, persuaded him that the fund could create financial security for artists. “The idea was that when the pandemic restrictions ended, there would be money in their account,” Castro tells Billboard.
While any 4Even investor can pitch new artists for the fund, acquisitions must be agreed upon by all the partners. Lima, who will soon become one of the fund’s shareholders, informally proposed 4Even invest in Vintage Culture, whose budding international career was making his Brazilian dates scarcer. “As he has started performing abroad more often, he has less availability to perform in Brazil,” says Dezembro. “His future show dates would become more expensive, which would eventually profit the fund.”
Vintage Culture performs live onstage during the second day of Lollapalooza Brazil Music Festival at Interlagos Racetrack on April 06, 2019 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Mauricio Santana/GI
According to João Fiuza, CEO of Brazilian fintech One7, which is responsible for the financial governance of 4Even, Lima is expected to become an official fund investor in November, entitling him to participate in all portfolio decisions. Until now, he has been informally advising on new assets. (Junior Marques, one of the artists who sold shows to 4Even, is managed by Balada Music, Lima’s music management company.)
The recent wave of investigations into publicly funded music shows in Brazil — officials in 70 cities are suspected of agreeing to pay inflated fees to lure artists — has placed Lima under a negative spotlight, as his name was mentioned in many of the contracts under scrutiny. Dezembro says no Lima show that belongs to the fund has been canceled or devalued in the market since the investigations became public.
The fund doesn’t resell shows to municipalities, which are the target of the ongoing “CPI do sertanejo” investigations — it sells to private clients, like rodeos, fairs and other events, she says. And all of Lima’s municipal shows were negotiated directly with his company, Balada Music, she says. (Fiuza says Lima’s 4Even-owned shows are selling at a higher price now than before the investigations.)
Even though the fund resells shows for higher prices than they pay the acts, 4Even has seen a growing number of artists vying to join the portfolio to invest in their careers. The fund can be particularly helpful to emerging artists, who can use money earned from selling shows in advance to record one of their concerts, for example, says Fiuza.
But most artists are signing with 4Even for the overall career-management opportunity. “If it were all about buying and reselling the shows, the fund wouldn’t be sustainable,” says Dezembro. “The stronger pillar of the fund is being able to place these artists in the biggest events of Brazil, on the best days, and at the most competitive [set times].”
Additional Reporting by Alexei Barrionuevo
Apple Music has named Bad Bunny its 2022 artist of the year. This is the first time since the Apple Music Awards launched in 2019 that a Latin artist has been recognized as AOTY, and the first time only one artist is named for the award.
The Puerto Rican artist — whose Un Verano Sin Ti Album is also Apple Music’s most streamed album this year and the biggest Latin album of all time — is acknowledged for his excellence and influence on global culture in 2022. He now joins previous AOTY honorees including Billie Eilish, Lil Baby, Megan Thee Stallion, Taylor Swift and The Weeknd.
“We’re thrilled to celebrate the achievements of Bad Bunny, whose influence on every corner of culture could not be ignored in 2022,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and Beats, in a statement. “Watching Bad Bunny ascend from an Apple Music Up Next artist in 2018 to our Artist of the Year this year has been nothing short of extraordinary. We congratulate him on his record-breaking year and for continuing to bring Latin music to a massive global audience.”
In addition to becoming Apple Music’s biggest Latin artist of all time by streams worldwide, Bad Bunny’s “Moscow Mule” holds the record for the biggest Latin song of all time by first-day streams worldwide. He broke the record for most simultaneous entries by a single Latin artist with 22 songs on the Daily Top 100; reached No. 1 on the Daily Top 100 in 34 countries worldwide, more than any other Latin artist; and holds the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 Latin albums by first-day streams, just to name a few milestones.
“When I started, I didn’t have a global fan base,” he told Apple Music in an exclusive film. “I’m grateful for everything I’ve accomplished and everything I’ve experienced. The Latin music movement has grown so much. I would never take full credit or say, ‘It’s because of me.’ No, it’s every one of us. A whole generation. Our energy and presence are always felt.”
In celebration, the “Me Porto Bonito” singer curated a “La Fórmula” playlist with tracks from Myke Towers and Rauw Alejandro, among others, and fans can tune in to Apple Music 1, where it’s Bad Bunny Day with exclusive programming, specials, and more.
Watch Bad Bunny’s exclusive Apple Music short film below:
With 8 billion views, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee‘s “Despacito” extends its reign as the most-viewed music video on YouTube — by a long shot.
The closest competitor to the nearly five-minute clip for the 2017 smash hit is Ed Sheeran‘s “Shape of You,” which has raked in 5.8 billion views.
“Who would of thought that a melody over my guitar that morning in my house would be listened to in so many places, by so many people,” Fonsi wrote on social media celebrating the song’s new milestone. “It’s been almost six years and I still can’t believe it. The words THANK YOU don’t cover it. 8 billion views, sounds so nice.”
Fonsi continued thanking those who made it all possible, including Daddy Yankee, Justin Bieber who jumped on the remix, his co-writer Erika Ender, producers Andrés Torres and Mauricio Rengifo and video director Carlos Pérez, to name a few, and his island of Puerto Rico, where they filmed the video, featuring former Miss Universe Zuleyka Rivera.
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“Despacito,” released via Universal Music Latino in January 2017, is the gift that keeps on giving. Four months after the music video made its debut on YouTube, it hit the 1 billion mark back when it got a boost from a bilingual remix that featured Bieber.
Five years ago in May, the remix with Bieber reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and made global history. Furthermore, “Despacito” topped the Hot Latin Songs chart for a record 56 (non-consecutive) weeks, spending the most weeks at No. 1 for any title since the chart’s inception in 1986.
Fútbol fans around the world are counting down the days until the 2022 FIFA World Cup kicks off on Nov. 20 in Qatar. To get pumped for the big day, many already have their favorite official World Cup song on repeat.
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In 1990, almost sixty years after the first-ever edition of the World Cup, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) began to adopt songs that would become the official soundtrack of the global soccer event, which happens every four years.
Of course, some have become more memorable than others. There’s Ricky Martin‘s “Cup of Life (La Copa de la Vida),” which in 1998 was the euphoric official FIFA song for the tournament that took place that year in France. It originally peaked at No. 60 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1998 and re-entered the chart at No. 45 in August 1999. The international smash hit also won a Grammy for best Latin pop performance.
Twelve years later, for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Shakira gifted fútbol fans the ultimate soccer song. She released “Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)” in collaboration with Freshlyground. The tournament’s official song was recorded in Spanish and English. With more than 3 billion views on YouTube to date, the track peaked at No. 38 on the Hot 100 chart dated July 3, 2010.
Other World Cup official songs or anthems that made a splash are Pitbull, Jennifer Lopez and Claudia Leitte’s song “Ole Ola (We Are One)” for the 2016 Mundial in Brazil. And don’t forget Nicky Jam, Will Smith and Era Istrefi’s official song titled “Live It Up.”
While we wait for the soccer event to begin, vote for your favorite all-time World Cup song below.
Jessie Reyez, Snow Tha Product and Adriel Favela gathered to talk about the ways in which they disrupt gender roles and why it matters in the Latin music space in a new episode of Billboard’s Cultura Clash (watch above).
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“I didn’t really fit in most of the times in my 10-year music career until now,” regional Mexican singer Favela says. “I felt lost all the time but it’s just having that Mexican-American culture and being proud of it. There was a moment when I was the first one tatted in regional Mexican and it was a bad thing. It wasn’t until I decided to be myself and have fun with it that people got attached to it.”
Mexican-American rapper, Snow, could also relate.
“I was raised very traditional Mexican. They take your biggest insecurity and make that your nickname. So, they definitely did that to me,” she notes. “They tugged in a lot on the type of person I was or what I did. It made me want to be very true to myself and that’s how I ended up putting everything into music. I learned to love myself because of the way the fans loved me for becoming myself.”
When it comes to defending their art, Colombian-Canadian singer-songwriter Reyez assures that it’s “a given in this industry.”
“I feel that my skin has gotten a little bit thicker throughout the years,” she elaborates. “Sometimes you just have to have fun. I have to be careful that I don’t become a character of myself for the sake of going against the grain. I just need to do whatever I want to do, regardless of whether I’m getting cheered on or not because the cheers have to come internally for them to be valid.”
On this week’s episode, hosted by YouTube’s A.J. Ramos and presented by Capital One, the three artists also opened up about receiving backlash on social media, the artist they most admired growing up for breaking gender norms, and much more.
“The simple fact of being human beings deserves respect,” Favela proudly states.
Now in its second season, Cultura Clash — hosted by Latin executive AJ Ramos — spotlights Latin artists and influencers who discuss trending topics within Latin culture and music. A new episode airs every Wednesday on Billboard.com, social media, and Billboard‘s YouTube channel. Watch this week’s episode above.
A different kind of beat was heard at the 15th annual Live in the Vineyard event in Napa Valley: Salsa, Latin percussion and acoustic ballads in Spanish, performed by the likes of singer/songwriter Kany García, salsa star Luis Figueroa, alt/popsters Monsiuer Periné, pop trio Reik, mariachi singer Lupita Infante, Costa Rican songstress Debi Nova and pianist Arthur Hanlon. Nearly 20 Latin artists took part in Live in the Vineyard’s first ever Latin edition, programmed in response to the surge in Latin music’s popularity and visibility.
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The event, which allows rising and established acts to showcase new music in front of top tastemakers in synch and licensing, DSPs, radio and press, has had some 500 acts perform throughout the years in private showcases in Napa Valley vineyards. The long list includes the likes of Carrie Underwood, Jason Derulo, Alanis Morissette, Adam Lambert and Fergie, and the pay-off from performances has been strong enough that in 2017 Jacobs also launched a country-only event. Through it all, Latin acts had been far and in-between. But this year, organizers launched a Latin-only edition, and invited more than 25 music supervisors and executives who are specifically looking to place Latin music.
“I’ve had Latin acts here and there, but never officially launched a full-on Latin event,” says Bobbii Jacobs, the founder and president of FF Entertainment, which puts together Live in the Vineyard in partnership with experiential and entertainment agency Forefront. “But I’ve always followed my heart and taken time to listen to pop culture. I had this feeling in my gut with Latin.”
A little over two years ago, Jacbos decided to do something about it. She admittedly knew very little about the Latin music scene, but she hit LinkedIn and contacted Darlene Rodriguez, Senior Director of music licensing and merchandising at Sony Music Entertainment Latin.
“I messaged Darlene and I said, ‘Hi, this is who I am, I’m legit and I’d love to talk to you. And she emailed me back.”
In Miami, Rodriguez was intrigued. She called Jacbos back and found out she had booked many Sony artists before, but not from the Latin labels.
“I thought this would be perfect — because in my world, the most important thing is to give exposure to our Latin artists here in the U.S.,” says Rodríguez. “While our artists are big [outside of the] U.S. it’s important to have them establish a presence here in the U.S. with these music supervisors. What really clinched it is, Bobbii said, ‘You need to come and experience it.’”
Last year, Rodríguez went to Jacobs’ country music event and saw first-hand the power of having artists perform for a highly curated and attentive audience whose sole purpose was music discovery. She set to work, mining Sony’s roster to find the right artists, both from the U.S. and other countries, and also contacted colleagues at Sony Music Publishing U.S. Latin and Latin America.
Jointly, they decided that rather than focus on radio and DSPs, where they were well-covered, they needed help connecting with music supervisors and synching and licensing agencies. While the presence of music in Spanish has steadily grown on the Billboard, Spotify and YouTube charts, there is still a lack of Spanish-language music on mainstream TV and streaming service content, and there’s a lack of understanding of the different genres within Latin music.
“Our goal is to expose our artists and see them placed […] There’s a ton of competition and there needs to be a little more education of the Latin genres, so they think of us for all sorts of opportunities, not just the Mexican scene at a restaurant.”
“Our goal is to expose our artists and see them placed,” says Rodríguez. “That includes film, commercial, gaming, Zumba. It’s really just to make sure we place our artists’ music in all these different categories in the U.S. There’s a ton of competition, and there needs to be a little more education of the Latin genres, so they think of us for all sorts of opportunities, not just the Mexican scene at a restaurant.”
At the same time, convincing artists and managers to participate in Live in the Vineyard wasn’t automatic. While the event invites supervisors and executives to Napa and partners with local chefs and wineries to put together lunches, dinners and showcases, artists must pay a fee to participate. But Rodriguez –along with Caroline Abs, Sony Latin’s SVP of strategic market development for the U.S., and Amy Roland, VP of synch & new business for Sony Music Publishing U.S. Latin and Latin America — felt the investment was warranted.
“We want general market supervisors who use Latin music,” says Roland, who also invited artists who are signed to Sony publishing but release music independently, like Alih J. “My direct contacts are more in the Latin world, and this event gives me face time with people I mostly work remotely with. I’m excited.”
In the end, some 25 music supervisors and execs who had expressed interest in including Latin music in their projects attended two Latin artist-only events, and three events that featured both Latin and pop acts. And while Live in the Vineyard can’t compel music supervisors to place anything, “our track record is very successful,” says Jacobs. “We put you in front of influential people in the background of Napa, and the core is to break music no matter how big or small the artist is.”
“People are really here to discover new music,” adds Roland. “And given authentic music, my hope is they are going to consume it more.”
A new wave of artists has been confirmed to take center stage at the 23rd annual Latin Grammys on Nov. 17, including Silvana Estrada, Gente de Zona, Goyo, Los Bukis, Aymée Nuviola, Julio Reyes Copello, Rosalía, Carlos Vives, and Nicole Zignago. Copello, a seven-time nominee, joins the event as musical director of the show’s house band.
At this year’s ceremony, eight-time nominee Rosalía is up for record of the year and album of the year; Vives, a five-time nominee, is up for record of the year and song of the year; Gente de Zona and Nuviola are nominated in the tropical categories; and both Estrada and Zignago, are up for the coveted best new artist.
The newly announced artists set to take the stage join previously announced performers such as Ángela Aguilar, Christina Aguilera, Rauw Alejandro, Marc Anthony, Banda Los Recoditos, Camilo, Elvis Costello, Chiquis, Jorge Drexler, Nicky Jam, Jesse & Joy, John Legend, Carin León, Mariachi Sol de México de José Hernández, Christian Nodal, Sin Bandera, Sebastián Yatra, and the 2022 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year, Marco Antonio Solís.
The Latin Grammy Awards — which “promise to honor the legacy, celebrate the present and embrace the future of Latin music, with deliberate consciousness, paying-it-forward to the next generations of music creators,” according to a press statement — will be held Nov. 17 at the Michelob Ultra Arena at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, and will air live on Univision beginning at 8 p.m. ET.
The Latin Grammy Premiere, a non-televised ceremony in which the winners in most categories are announced, will take place before the broadcast.